Supporting Your Child’s Development in Two Languages

Raising a child with two (or more) languages is a wonderful gift. Many parents worry that learning two languages might confuse their child or slow down speech development, but research consistently shows that bilingualism does not cause speech or language delays.

Children are capable of learning multiple languages and with the right support, they can thrive in both.

What Research Tells Us About Bilingual Development

Current research shows that:

• Children can learn two languages from an early age without confusion

• Bilingual children reach communication milestones in the same general timeframe as monolingual children

• Mixing languages (called code-switching) is normal and expected

• If a child has a true communication difficulty, it will show up in both languages not just one.

What Bilingual Development Can Look Like

Bilingual children may:

• Use words from both languages in the same sentence

• Know some words in one language but not the other

• Have a smaller vocabulary in each language, but a larger total vocabulary when both languages are combined

These patterns are part of typical bilingual development.

How Parents Can Support Two Languages at Home

1. Use the language you are most comfortable with

2. Provide consistent exposure

3. Don’t stop a home language to “focus on English”

4. Follow your child’s lead

5. Read, sing, and play in both languages